Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Total and essentially unquestioned cooperation is hugely powerful, yes. It makes a bigger difference than "character builds" to overall success. (Those who play GURPS will understand it when I say this: "It's like having a gang of equally powerful Allies around constantly, meaning each fellow party member effectively gives you a free 20-point power boost, or a 40-point one if we treat the inevitable meta-game connection as de facto Summonable.")

In the specific case of finances, I see little game-balance problem with it (see below for the social problems). The truly powerful stuff – very fine rapiers ($10,000), suits of epic plate ($12,000), ironskin amulets ($28,720), Might items ($30,000 for +1 to ST), etc. – is just so costly that even a Very Wealthy delver with $20,000 won't be equipping the whole party with it. One or two such items are about as good a use of 30 points as anything else, and handing gewgaws off to friends rather than keeping them to compensate for the effectiveness lost by not having those 30 points in combat abilities . . . well, that level of team spirit is admirable!

And that can be bad.

If the wealthy person who equips everyone ends up on the other side of an argument with those who carry the equipment, and tries to give orders or ask for the gear back, the likely outcome is a forceful "no" to Moneybags – or worse, the assassination of Moneybags. There's no upside to that, as it most likely leaves Moneybags' player upset and ruins the game for all. And if Moneybags' player was complicit in a scheme to equip allies, get assassinated or otherwise die, and create a replacement character who's useful in other ways . . . well, that's very skeevy and likely to upset the GM and also ruin the game for all.

There's no easy fix for this.

"No loans!" is heavy-handed, difficult to explain, and liable to be yet another way to upset people and ruin the game. The fairest method is probably to give a voice to Moneybags' "excellent financial connections in town." If Moneybags is assassinated, they'll make it impossible to buy and sell in town, and might send well-armed repo critters. If Moneybags is merely given no say in how the gear is used, Moneybags might be able to pull strings that mean the others had better like that gear, because once again, they can't buy and sell in town. Making these potential consequences known ahead of time, before any loaning happens, is reasonably fair and not too heavy-handed.

Ultimately, though, "Don't be a jerk!" and "Know your fellow players!" are the only sure-fire solutions.

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Again though, I really don't see how this party is getting past the first encounter in order to ever benefit from this. I suppose that instead of cash, Moneybags could start with enough gear for an entire party that just coincidentally matches the needs of his new naked friends but even then they'll need to equip in the midst of a fight (though honestly I would be inclined to have him pick gear without input from the other PCs in that case).

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

The DFRPG (which is the subject of this forum) supposes that starting gear and money are "just there" – there's no need to shop for it, so you can start your first adventure at once. While it might be amusing to mess with the players, it would probably be best not to. Remember that while GURPS is a full-spectrum RPG, the DFRPG sets aside social complexities to get to the action. Honestly, I see nothing wrong with everybody pooling their money and starting with whatever they all agree to spend it on. Even if you include social complexities, they might be a long-established mercenary unit with a successful captain, family with a rich matriarch or patriarch, criminal crew with a wealthy mastermind, etc., and the first adventure is merely the first "on screen" adventure in a longstanding association.

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Even in the case of Dead Broke characters?

In which case Dead Broke isn't as much of a disadvantage (only affecting your selling ability) and shouldn't be worth as much, IMO.

Edit: If this does work, the really Munchkin way for arbitrary amounts of starting wealth would be:

1. Go off template and make a party patron without any useful adventuring skills and tons of money.
2. Give away all your money and equip the rest of the party.
3. Retire the your character.
4. Repeat the above N times.
5. Make a new character who can sell stuff but still adventure competently.
6. Then start the first adventure.

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Ah but the dead broke character also has to put up with the watch questioning him all the time. Plus of course your PC's have basically given themselves the job of bodyguards... And every thief in town knows who the whale is.

Plus I don't think you can get Signature Gear for things you were gifted. (At least not for a while anyway).

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Yeah, I am not inclined to let money or gear change hands before play starts, regardless of what Kromm says. Otherwise every party could just start with infinite wealth.

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Dunno about infinite unless you do the trick I used to do in Bards Tale where I created lots of party members. Looted them, kicked them from the party and carried on going.

That I'd crack down on.

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Yeah that's what I am taking about.
"You have to play the first concept you think of! No changing your mind!" seems significantly less fun then "No trading before the game starts" (which honestly is how most people play anyway, I think).

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Dead Broke means what it says by "You start with nothing but rags to wear." Your rich patron friend would have to hand you gear and hope it's useful to you, because you start with nothing other than those rags. Other PCs start with whatever their cash and points can scare up, however weird or hard to find it might be; you do not.

Signature Gear must be paid for normally using "some combination of Starting Money and Extra Money." Neither of those is "I got it from a friend" – or for that matter, "I got it from a quest-giver." So yes, starting with nothing also deprives you of that option, though the players of characters who start with nothing rarely plan to depend on a vital piece of equipment that needs insurance.

And since you start with nothing, you can forget about starting play with a Weapon Bond to "any weapon you can afford," because you can afford nothing.

It might seem a gray zone whether "start with" should be read this stringently for Dead Broke delvers, but that was intended sense of the words. If you start Dead Broke, you start with zip, nada, rien. Your friends can promptly set you up with gear, but you won't have Signature Gear or Weapon Bond for it, and they'll actually have to transfer it from their character sheet to yours in play.

So while I wouldn't go so far as to make Dead Broke worth fewer points, I would say that in addition to "You cannot trade points for cash," there's an implicit "If your friends equip you, they must do so in play."

Re: A sack of DFRPG questions!
 

Okay now I am totally confused. What does "in-play" mean in this context if it doesn't mean "after the first adventure begins"?